The Newton High School girls’ basketball team had the second-ranked (KBCA, Class 6A) Maize Eagles on the ropes all night, outscoring the Eagles 35-29 from the field. Fouls and turnovers allowed Maize back in the game, leading to a 41-38 Eagle win in overtime Tuesday in Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League Division I play at Ravenscorft Gym. Maize improves to 12-1, 6-0 in AV-CTL I play. Newton falls to 10-3, 5-1 in AV-CTL I play. “We only shot four free throws in the first half, and two of those were from a technical,” Newton coach Randy Jordan said. “We struggled with turnovers. In the third quarter, we could not get ourselves calmed down. When we were calm and ran our stuff, we had great looks. Too many times, we had players in panic mode.” Maize was led by Paige Lungwitz with 17 points, all but two in the second half and overtime. Daley Handy added 11 points. “With a player like (Lungwitz), she’s going to be there in overtime,” Jordan said. “What I’m aggravated about is we knew that, and we didn’t help Emily (Hiebert), when Paige was going to the hold. We just stood. We’re not real mature yet. We got caught in the moment. That was not Emily’s fault. We knew all along that it would take the whole team to guard her. For most of the game, we did that. But there were times we fell asleep and didn’t rotate over.” Newton was led by sophomore Taylor Stahly with 17 points, hitting five of nine 3-point attempts. Abbie Lehman added 13 points. Newton jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first quarter. Both teams struggled with turnovers in the first period. Newton opened the second quarter with a Taylor Stahly trey. Maize came back with a 6-0 run. A Stahly trey with 20 seconds remaining in the half put the Railers up 17-10 at intermission. Newton was six of 15 shooting in the first half. Maize was five of 14. Newton had 13 turnovers to nine for the Eagles. Newton opened the second half with an Emily Hiebert layup off a steal. Maize came back with a 6-0 run, aided by four Railer turnovers. A Lungwitz trey with 20 seconds left in the quarter cut the Railer lead to two, 21-19. Dailey Handy tied the game with a jumper set up by a Railer turnover to open the fourth quarter. Lungwitz followed with one of two free throws. Keiryn Swensen then hit two free throws. Stahly broke the run and tied the game on a trey. Lehman followed with a layup. With Newton up by three and 3:43 remaiing, Newton was called for a shooting foul and a technical foul on the bench. Lungwitz hit three of the four free throws to tie the game. Newton made a defensive stop but a turnover in the backcourt allowed Maize to tie the game. Newton regained the lead on a Lehman layup on a feed from Kelsi Langley with 1:14 remaining. Lungwitz tied the game with a layup 12 seconds later. Newton turned the ball over on a charging call. Maize turned it over on a travel with 14.6 seconds in regulation. A Newton shot at the buzzer fell short. Maize opened the first overtime with a three-point play by Lungwitz, answered by a Stahly trey. Lungwitz hit a layup with a minute remaining in the overtime. Lehman was fouled with 26.1 seconds remaining, missing both free throws. After one of two Swenson free throws, Stahly hit a running jumper to get the Newton within one. Lungwitz hit two free throws with 6.0 seconds remaining. A Carlgren half-court shot rolled on the rim and went out. “I’m not surprised we took them into overtime,” Jordan said. “I’m surprised we didn’t win. We’re every bit as good as they are. We battled. It was two very highly ranked teams. Both had the will to win.” Newton plays at 6 p.m. Friday at Salina Central. The Mustangs are 9-4. Newton beat Central 45-42 Jan. 7 in Newton. The Mustangs topped 10th-ranked Andover 48-31 Tuesday. “Central is a very good team,” Jordan said. “We’re going to have to play much better than we did tonight. The kids know that and they are going to rebound from this.”